I just read an article which mentions about who is a candidate, the article
doesnít mention about disc herniation, so I think just like what jdsun said
ďStimulators are usually used on people who have nerve damage and there
is no structural reason for pain....meaning, no disc herniations.ĒĒ People
who get stimulators usually don't have a surgical optionĒ but I donít
understand why brodyís doctor did it for him instead of surgery and hope
SCS can help him.
Thanks

Ok, everything made sense but that one point above. How can someone who has permanent nerve damage and lives in pain ALL day long, NOT be seriously dependent on pain medications? I have been told one of the objectives of getting a SCS is to help reduce some of your pain medications. Of couse I am seriously dependent on pain mediation right now. My pain is so high, I would not be able to function without them.

[QUOTE=jdsun;4073847]Ok, everything made sense but that one point above. How can someone who has permanent nerve damage and lives in pain ALL day long, NOT be seriously dependent on pain medications? I have been told one of the objectives of getting a SCS is to help reduce some of your pain medications. Of couse I am seriously dependent on pain mediation right now. My pain is so high, I would not be able to function without them.

Is it me, or does this one statement not make any sense at all??

Jdsun[/QUOTE]

I will be getting an SCS in two days. I had the trial and it was helpful. There are a few reasons why they do not want people who are seriously dependent on pain meds.

One, there is an extreme psychological strain getting one of these implanted.

2, If you are taking exreme amounts of drugs, you can get false readings from the scs that can be dangerous.

3. On top of the emotional and psychological strain, having to "detox" from the meds adds to problems.

I have been taking several pain meds for about 3 years. One of them is a strong narcotic (oxy's) however, I have been extremely careful with them, A typical script of 40 pills typically lasts me about 3 months depending on my pain. I tend to suffer more then I need to, but I also do not like the effect of the pain meds.

I just have to say my husband was on very high pain medications for a few years...200mcg of Fentanyl pain patches along with many milligrams (60 to 80)of Oxicodone's. It was because of the high pain meds he decided he wanted the SCS so he could reduce dosage and always feeling like he was living/working in a fog. Of course he was seriously dependent on pain meds which has nothing to do with getting the SCS. The mental health evaluation is just to be sure you are a somewhat stable person. You can be on serious pain meds and not have a mental health condition. This mental health evaluation is required by the manufacture of the product not by the doctor...the surgeon of the implant can even give you the mini depression test. Half the time the patient takes it as part of the paperwork you fill out a new patient at the doctors office...or the surgeon can send you to a psychiatrist to do a quick evaluation...it is to be sure you understand that the back stimulator is not going to be the cure to all your problems. Anyone that has serious back pain is always going to have high pain management but my husband wanted off of some of the pain medications and having an implant was his only option. After you have the implant then you learn how to program the implant to cover the pain as you SLOWLY decrease the medications...this is very slow process and as you decrease the oral and patches then you will increase the stimulator to cover you as you reduce the medications. Both his trail stimulator test and the permanent stimulator was done in the same day clinic by the same doctor...the doctor can be from any specialty with training in the procedure of implanting. Husbands doctor put the stimulator in with the the SCS representative in the surgery to advise the doctor on placement. The whole SCS process is done differently from one place to another. Good luck.

I have a question about if I compare with spinal cord stimulator ( SCS) procedure and minimally invasive spine surgery. (MISS) which one has less risk than another one or they are almost same and no different at this point? The risk I mean is the incision, remove part of bone, surgery time and recovery time. I thought originally that SCS maybe is more safe than MISS. Maybe I am wrong.

__________________
had herniated disc in L5 s1 five years ago, have
had persistent right leg until now.
have Osteoporosis, subacute thyroidits.

I might be incorrect but if surgery is an option I believe then an SCS is not an option at the same time. The SCS is done in cases where surgery, or further surgery, is not an option. Once you do a SCS I don't know that a physician would later want to do surgery such as a MISS as the SCS is a permanent implant.

[QUOTE] if surgery is an option I believe then an SCS is not an option at the same time. The SCS is done in cases where surgery, or further surgery, is not an option. Once you do a SCS I don't know that a physician would later want to do surgery such as a MISS as the SCS is a permanent implant.[/QUOTE]

SpineAZ,
Thank for indicating. I knew you are right .I just concern because one neuro surgeon I recenly saw said I have no surgery option. but I believe if I bring my new MRI to see those surgeons who I already saw. they probably will say I still have surgery option. Then I have to choose who I can trust and which surgery is more safe. But now my understand is that SCS only can do when the patient has no surgery option NOW ( no matter he/she did or didnít do surgery) but surgery can Ďt do after SCS.I hope I am right.

__________________
had herniated disc in L5 s1 five years ago, have
had persistent right leg until now.
have Osteoporosis, subacute thyroidits.

I have had the IDET in 2000 and just recently had L-4 through S-1 laminectomy with IBF and Instrumentation in July of this year. I have been having new symptoms of cold sensation in my left leg that is getting very painful with the numbness and tingling in the leg as well, My doctor is going to try and dissolve some of the scar tissue on monday and if that does not work in two weeks he wants to try this SCS. I am concerned however as I used to do the trial implantation of this same device used for bladder incontinence. I hdid not see many positive results with where they implanted the main device in the buttocks. My patients complained all the time about pain and discomfort, and many had them removed. Can any one tell me if they are cumbersome, painful, as I am only 42 and newly married .... still want a life beyond back pain....Thank you for any replys you might have.

[QUOTE=robynw;4131306]I have had the IDET in 2000 and just recently had L-4 through S-1 laminectomy with IBF and Instrumentation in July of this year. I have been having new symptoms of cold sensation in my left leg that is getting very painful with the numbness and tingling in the leg as well, My doctor is going to try and dissolve some of the scar tissue on monday and if that does not work in two weeks he wants to try this SCS. I am concerned however as I used to do the trial implantation of this same device used for bladder incontinence. I hdid not see many positive results with where they implanted the main device in the buttocks. My patients complained all the time about pain and discomfort, and many had them removed. Can any one tell me if they are cumbersome, painful, as I am only 42 and newly married .... still want a life beyond back pain....Thank you for any replys you might have.[/QUOTE]

Well Ill tell you about my situation, I had mine installed in august of this year. Yes there is some mild discomfort. For me, where the unit itself was, just above my hip in the love handle, was perfect. I had NO issues of discomfort at all. I had incision pain for about a week. I unfortuneatally, ended up with a staph infection that just about killed me and had to have it all removed. But yes it is very helpful for most people. You will do a trial first to make sure that it helps you. Do not worry about infection tho, chances of it happening are very slim. Mine was a fluke. I am going to have it all installed again once I heal up enough to get it done.

I started to think the SCS is a smaller surgery than general MicroDiscectomy in everywhere ( risk, surgery time, incision) but now I think I am wrong because SCS will take about 2 -4 hours and there are two incisions and the bigest one can be 3 inches long. It maybe fit me ( I have leg pain but one surgeon said I have no surgery option) but is not a good choice for me right now.

__________________
had herniated disc in L5 s1 five years ago, have
had persistent right leg until now.
have Osteoporosis, subacute thyroidits.

[QUOTE=efang622;4136336]I started to think the SCS is a smaller surgery than general MicroDiscectomy in everywhere ( risk, surgery time, incision) but now I think I am wrong because SCS will take about 2 -4 hours and there are two incisions and the bigest one can be 3 inches long. It maybe fit me ( I have leg pain but one surgeon said I have no surgery option) but is not a good choice for me right now.[/QUOTE]

Hi I read your message about you getting the SCS I had 3 herniated disks and 1 bulging but the worst part is the nerve damage I sustained the bad disks are l3 l4 l5 and the s1 area I just had the SCS implant 10 weeks ago and it works great for my daily pain BUT as soon as I do any activities like go to the store for an hour or my daily walk even just sitting on the floor playing with my son for 10 min's causes the nerve to just shut me down the pain becomes so bad I cant even think. I understand the SCS cannot help that issue it just helps with the normal pain. I still cannot believe the Dr.s could not fix this I saw 3 different Dr.s and they all kept saying they were going to surgically correct it (lamenectomy-lamenetomy-micro disketomy etc...)but they did nothing one said my lower back was so bad he would have to fuse my lower back but I was to young (44) and to healthy to do this so they recommended the SCS which works great as long as I do nothing and that sucks my life is horrible and I dont know what I am going to do of course this was a workers comp claim and these Dr.s are a-holes. My pain is in my lower back from a deep throb to sharp shock like pains depending on what I do then the pain is in my butt and hip and my outside thigh has a big lump on it that just burns with pain then the lower leg is also sore and my toes are always freezing and burning I described the toe pain kind of like a cold slushy feeling with sharp and sore toes which I can barely move so you tell me if there is something really wrong here living like this is horrible I have not fished or hunted or have done any normal activities in 2 years now I only hope someone can fix me someday. I had the SCS implant 10 weeks ago and I am still healing I start physical therapy in 2 weeks the surgery itself was really painful for the 1st week then it slowly decreased whatever you do - do not do anything like bend to much or lift anything you will know when your back starts to scream do what the DR says it will benefit you
other wise the SCS is ok you feel it in your butt and your back and you wont really be able to lie on the floor it will feel weird but otherwise you will get use to it , charging the unit is easy I have mine on for 2 days straight then I will shut it off once and a while for a couple hours to give it a rest my charge lasts about 2 weeks but I reccomend it if you got good results from your temp. For the record I had mri;s -x-rays -a myelogram- venus dopler tests-nerve tests-transforaminal injection-epidurals 3-sympathetic injections 2 and none really helped I got relief from the transforaminal and the epidurals for approx a month to 3 months but just some relief but all the pain came back.
My incisions are 3" in my back and 3" on my butt hip area

Thank you very much for letting me know your experience. I am sorry to heard that your SCS surgery is not pretty successful . But I donít know what is that your surgeon going to do to fix it now. I guess you havenít done any surgery before you did SCS. I hope someone can do something to decrease you pain. but I donít know if He should remove your SCS first or not because
I think it is difficult to do something when SCS is still in there. I havenít done SCS yet and also not going to do it , I donít think it is a good choice to me.

Good luck, I hope you can find a good surgeon to fix this problem soon.

Thanks!

__________________
had herniated disc in L5 s1 five years ago, have
had persistent right leg until now.
have Osteoporosis, subacute thyroidits.

[QUOTE=robynw;4131306]I have had the IDET in 2000 and just recently had L-4 through S-1 laminectomy with IBF and Instrumentation in July of this year. I have been having new symptoms of cold sensation in my left leg that is getting very painful with the numbness and tingling in the leg as well, My doctor is going to try and dissolve some of the scar tissue on monday and if that does not work in two weeks he wants to try this SCS. I am concerned however as I used to do the trial implantation of this same device used for bladder incontinence. I hdid not see many positive results with where they implanted the main device in the buttocks. My patients complained all the time about pain and discomfort, and many had them removed. Can any one tell me if they are cumbersome, painful, as I am only 42 and newly married .... still want a life beyond back pain....Thank you for any replys you might have.[/QUOTE]

I recently went in for second opinion as I feel my back surgeon is just passing me on to the pain management doc and at my second docs he stated that it is way to soon to jump into the SCS as my surgery is only 5 months old and now he is sending me for MRI and Bloodwork to check for infection as a possible issue. My PM doc has injected me 1 month ago with the epidural steroids, was not helpful, now 1 week ago he injected my spine with enzymes and steroids to try and break up yhe scar tissue, this to has not helped. I started complaining of this leg coldness and buttocks pain almost immediatly after surgery and am afraid he may have nicked some nerves and I will have to live with this more severe pain than I had before the surgery. I have also gotten a permanent disability parking permit so I can at least walk into the store without haveing to stop and rest due to the pain and spasms I have.

thank you so much for your post. it helped me out tremendously. I have terrible disc pain, but no anatomical reason for it, which is why my PM thinks i'm a good candidate for the SCS. Thanks for doing such a good job of explaining this to me!